Of all the men who attacked the flying problem in the 19th century Otto Lilienthal was easily
the most important. His greatness appeared in every phase of the problem. No one equaled him in
power to draw new recruits to the cause no one equaled him in fullness and dearness of
understanding of the principles of flight no one did so much to convince the world of the
advantages of curved wing surfaces and no one did so much to transfer the problem of human
flight to the open air where it belonged.These words were spoken by Wilbur Wright who
successfully accomplished the first powered flight together with his brother Orville in 1903 on
the sand dunes of the Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina. Wilbur was talking about the
most important of their predecessors Otto Lilienthal.Lilienthal attracted worldwide attention
due to the spectacular photographs showing him in flight made possible by technology that had
only just been developed by him. This fortuitous union between a pioneer of aviation and the
pioneers of so-called instantaneous photography is responsible for the immense contemporary
popularity of Lilienthal's flights around the globe the first ever free flights performed by
man. This book traces the life of the German aviation pioneer focusing on the designs of his
many aircraft and the photographic documentation that has survived. The presentation ends with
a remarkable research project conducted by one of the authors right up to and including his
own training exercises with Lilienthal's normal soaring apparatus and large biplane. This
project offered new insight into Lilienthal's work and also led to a spectacular aerial
meeting of Lilienthal's 1895 biplane and the Wright brothers' 1902 biplane at a historic
location on the Outer Banks. The book provides access to video material largely stemming from
this project.
